Waiting for Cooldowns Issue 4: Season 3 Wrap Up

Greetings, fellow League enthusiasts! Martin ‘Hutch the Clutch’ Hutchison here, bringing you the final Waiting for Cooldowns of Season 3! That’s right, next time you read one of these columns it’ll be in the Pre-Season 4 version of the game, and there will be big changes to the League. We’ll be looking at some more of these changes today, as well as looking at two of the teams that will be attending the first professional tournament of Pre-Season 4, IEM Cologne. But first, the ABCs of LoL!

C is for… Cooldown! Really, what else could it be? The idea of a cooldown is confusing to players who are new to MOBAs. After you use a skill or ability, it becomes unavailable to you for a short time. This is referred to as the ability’s Cooldown. The cooldown of your champions’ Q, W and E skills tend to be relatively short, while their Ultimate ability will be on a longer cooldown, due to it’s increased power. Most champions benefit from buying items with Cooldown Reduction, a stat which lowers the time you’ll be waiting for your abilities.

Alright, on to the show!

The tournament at Cologne on November 23rd 2013 will be the first Pre-Season 4 League of Legends tournament. Six Pro teams will be fighting it out for the $50,000 cash prize. I’m going to look at two of those teams here, Cloud9 HyperX from North America, and Gambit Gaming from Europe.

Let’s start with Cloud 9. Chances are, if you follow competitive League of Legends, you know exactly who these guys are. Their rise to stardom during Season 3 was nothing short of meteoric. From January 2013 right up until the Season 3 Championships in September, Cloud 9 didn’t lose a single tournament. Hell, they barely lost any games. During their first competitive season, C9 set the record for longest winning streak in the LCS; 13 games. They took the LCS by storm, ending the season with an insane 25-3 win/lose record. There were millions who were positive that C9 would take Worlds. That they fell to Fnatic came as a shock for many, but all eyes are on the future for this promising new team.

A lot of Cloud 9s power come from the fact that they have two of the best LoL players in North America; Meteos and Sneaky. Meteos is well known in the LoL world for being virtually unkillable in the jungle. During the NA LCS Summer Promotion, he didn’t die once, netting him a Kill/Death Average of 45. During the entire Season 3 LCS Summer Split, his K/DA was 12.7, the highest in the LCS. Zac and Nasus are amongst his most picked and most powerful Junglers, and they remain relevant as we move forward, so we can expect to see lots of big plays out of this guy.

The ADC for Cloud 9 HyperX is Sneaky. I like Sneaky’s style because he plays a lot of Draven, one of my favourite ADCs, and he has been known to pick Jayce as a Carry rather than a Bruiser in the top lane. He’s also well known for his Ezreal, Ashe and Graves. In a meta where it seems like all we ever see is Corki vs Caitlyn in the bot lane, it’s nice to see some Pro’s pushing out with a larger pool.

Gambit Gaming are looking to make waves in Season 4. Formed from members of the then-defunct Moscow Five, Gambit Gaming, like C9, began playing competitively in January 2013. IEM Season 7 – Global Challenge Katowice was the venue, and the team got off to a rough start, going 1-2 in the Gorup stages after losing to Curse Gaming and Korean powerhouse Azubu Blaze. There was a tie at the bottom of the table, as three teams had all achieved the same record, but a time coefficient was used to break it; Gambit Gaming got a place in the semi-finals. Amazingly, they went on to defeat Azubu Frost 2-0 in the Semi-finals, and then take down Azubu Blaze to win the tournament.

In June, the teams Support Edward left for Curse Gaming, before returning five months later. With the team’s original roster including Mid-lane genius Alex Ich as Captain, Gambit are another force to be reckoned with. I’ll be looking forward to Alex Ich’s picks going forward; he’s always had a very diverse, unusual champion pool and is one of the few Pro players to regularly play Lissandra (he was undefeated when playing as her during the LCS Summer Seasdon).

Next week, I’ll be looking at long-time League of Legends heroes Fnatic and Counter Logic Gaming. For now, let’s look at some more of the changes coming to Season 4 of the Best Game in the World!

I saw a video recently, and you can see it below, about the new placement of Bushes in Summoner’s Rift. First of all, it seems that the bushes that line the map at the top left and bottom right corners have been divided, changing from two large bushes to three smaller ones. This makes these locations harder to ward; you now need three wards for full vision rather than two. The tribushes are being made slightly larger, while the bushes on the River at top and bottom lane have been pulled back slightly. As somebody who tends to play in these lanes, I like this change; it seems like less mobile Junglers will find it harder to gank. And, miraculously, the Banana Bush is gone! For those not in the know, the Banana Bush is an irritating bush slightly above mid lane on blue side, and slightly below it on purple side. It helps Champions slip into and out of the jungle. But, the awkward shape of it made it impossible to get vision of the full bush with a single ward as it curved around a wall. The redesigned shape of it will make vision in this area much easier.

That’s all from me for this week. Just a short one, but as we enter Season 4 there will be SO much to discuss. Competitive match ups, patches and all the latest gossip. As always, I appreciate your continued support and you can add me on Twitter @Hu7chTh3Clu7ch or League of Legends. I play on the EU West servers under the name Hutch The Clutch. Alternatively, add the official Waiting For Cooldowns Twitter @CDTWFC
I’ll see you all next time!